Society and the State in China

Chinese society was unique in the ancient world in the extent to which it was shaped by the actions of the state. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the political power and immense social prestige of Chinese state officials, all of them male. For more than 2,000 years, these officials, bureaucrats acting in the name of the emperor both in the capital and in the provinces, represented the cultural and social elite of Chinese civilization. This class had its origins in the efforts of early Chinese rulers to find administrators loyal to the central state rather than to their own families or regions. Philosophers such as Confucius had long advocated selecting such officials on the basis of merit and personal morality rather than birth or wealth. As the Han dynasty established its authority in China around 200 B.C.E., its rulers required each province to send men of promise to the capital, where they were examined and chosen for official positions on the basis of their performance.

A MAP OF TIME
470–400 B.C.E. Life of Aspasia in Athens
124 B.C.E. Imperial academy for training Chinese officials established
1st century B.C.E. Poetry of Buddhist nuns set to writing
73 B.C.E. Spartacus slave rebellion in Italy
1–200 C.E. Laws of Manu prescribing proper social behavior in India
Early 1st century C.E. Reforming emperor Wang Mang in power in China
45–116 C.E. Life of Ban Zhao in China
79 C.E. Eruption of Mount Vesuvius destroys Pompeii
184 C.E. Yellow Turban Rebellion in China
After 221 C.E. Loosening of restrictions on elite Chinese women as Han dynasty collapsed
After 500 C.E. Slavery replaced by serfdom in Roman world
690–705 C.E. Empress Wu reigned in China